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St. Joseph's unveils $15.5 million makeover plans

Architectural rendering of the new facade to St. Joseph's Hosppital on Mercy Boulevard daytime.Courtesy St. Joseph's/Candler

Architectural rendering of the new facade to St. Joseph's Hospital at nightCourtesy St. Joseph's/Candler

St. Joseph’s Hospital on Savannah’s southside will undergo a $15 million renovation beginning Monday that will ready the iconic 43-year-old structure for the future.

“It’s an extreme makeover,” Paul P. Hinchey, St. Joseph’s/Candler president and CEO, said in announcing the plan on Wednesday. “This is a big, big project. … We wanted to have a structure that would last another 50 years.”

The system’s plan calls for $11 million in exterior work and $4 million for 220 patient rooms slated for the makeover.

Minimal interference for patients or hospital services is anticipated during the makeover, Hinchey said.

When the 21-month project is completed, the hospital will “be really something to look at,” he said, comparing it to the Jepson Center for the Arts downtown and the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer and Research Pavilion on DeRenne Avenue.

The seven-story, 305-bed hospital on a 28-acre tract opened in 1970 under Sister Mary Cornile Dulohery, Sister of Mercy who headed the hospital from 1960-82, and who decided a new facility was needed to replace the original St. Joseph’s at Taylor and Habersham streets after 94 years.

The Baltimore-based Sisters of Mercy are the church-designated sponsors of St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Hinchey, who called Dulohery “a visionary,” praised the Sisters of Mercy, saying that “without (them) we wouldn’t even be here today.”

Years show

But Hinchey said the years have taken a toll on the exterior and patient rooms.

Over the last three years, water damage through the exterior brick has surfaced and will require waterproofing and a new exterior, Hinchey said.

Also slated is the replacement of exterior windows to include hurricane-proof technology that was not available when the original structure went up, Hinchey said.

“We’re taking out every window on floors 2 through 7,” he said, adding they will be replaced with two-pane, hurricane-proof windows. “It is a lot more energy-efficient.”

Joe Wall, director of engineering at St. Joseph’s, said the exterior work will focus on rooms on floors 3 through 7 and will begin May 20 and conclude June 1, 2014.

Exterior brick will be removed and replaced by installation of pre-fabricated, insulated metal panels with windows integrated similar to those used in health care facilities nationwide, he said, adding windows will be 130 mph-impact tested.

New interiors

Inside, 220 patient rooms will be redone with new bathrooms, tile, wall cabinets, linoleum and head walls behind beds which contain oxygen, medical vacuuming, bed lights and nurse call buttons, as well as connections to patient monitors and air handling units in each room to provide patients and nurses state-of-the-art features and safety.

Included in that work will be efforts to reduce infections and “create a much warmer patient experience,” officials said.

He said that portion of the project will begin Sept. 19 and conclude Jan. 1, 2015, with 10 rooms being done at a time over three weeks each.

He said portions of the second floor were redone between 2004-08.

Faith-based focus

Hinchey said the project will allow St. Joseph’s to “remain very close to our faith-based rites.”

“Our focus is not only on the technological part of healing, but on the spiritual parts of healing, as well.”

Some of the scheduled changes will include five stories of glass with a Mercy Cross etched in the wall that will be lit up each night.

Two steeples on the roof will give it a faith-based look from the outside.

Hinchey is especially proud of the inclusion of stained glass windows, built in 1913 and “Biblical in orientation,” which were taken from the original downtown hospital and placed in the Riley Chapel next to the southside hospital.

They will be placed in interior corridors in floors 3 through 7, but plans for final placement are still being completed.

“These are like museum pieces,” Hinchey said, comparing their quality to those in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Harris and Abercorn streets.

“This is a great project,” Hinchey said. “This is not just bricks and mortar.”